Small Design Decision – Ruocha Wang

“Black Museum” of the series Black Mirror consists of a series of three stories told by a museum narrator that all involve cutting-edge technological connections and transfers with the human brain.

The setup of the hospital looks old-fashioned: bulky medical instruments, decolored wall charts of the brain, wooden doorframes with visible metal pins… making us feel that the stories happened a long time ago. It matches one of the core ideas of Black Mirror that all these disturbing things can already happen, or happen in the near future. However, the “cutting-edge technology” in the story doesn’t exist in our time yet. Therefore there are some small design decisions in the episode that reminds us of the difference between the story world and our world.

The strange yellow “incubator” in the background. We don’t know what it does. But we know it is something related to transferring consciousness.

The blue dots display that occurred many times. Again, we don’t know what it shows. But following this scene the hero mentioned “brain enhancement”, “neural interface” and other terms. The display gives context and makes these concepts more convincing.

A raw of which machines on the table. Are they 3D printers? What are they printing? We don’t know. But it surely it makes us feel that something high-tech is happening in the lab.